Independence Day

[qatarperegrine]

Yesterday was the 34th anniversary of Qatari Independence.

In celebration, the students sponsored a party at school last night called Ana Qatari (I'm Qatari), and even though ana mu Qatari they graciously invited us anyway. There was traditional food, traditional singing and sword dancing, traditional crafts, and of course more henna than you can shake a stick at. Another fun thing was the philatelic club booth, which was displaying memorable stamps through Qatari history -- or at least since 1957, when British stamps of Queen Elizabeth were first overprinted with the word "QATAR" at the top and the price -- in rupees! -- at the bottom. (Click here to see them for yourself.) The nice gentleman staffing the booth explained all about the stamps and how they related to Qatari history, and he also gave us free postcards and lapel pins.

Here's my friend Lanny and me, dressed in traditional Qatari clothes (sorta), just before we got hennaed.

Comments

Curiosity

[shmuelisms.livejournal.com]

How do you find Qatari/Arabic/"Oriental" fashions?

I mean most Americans that I know. who think of themselves as "having good taste" in fashion, would probably rather die than be seen in such a gold heavy garment, is that not so? Wouldn't they find it "trashy" or something? But "here", this type of color theme, is pretty much taken for granted. My wife has a very nice black dress, with a [not as heavy] gold pattern sown in, and I really like it a lot.

The same goes for other simpler color combinations, that "clash" here but not in the USA, and vice-versa. You should see the strange looks and faces some new immigrants get, when they parade out their imported "finery", and are totally stunned by the "lack of flattery". :-) Amazing discovery - People are weird!

Re: Curiosity

[qatar.livejournal.com]

Well, I would certainly never claim I have "good taste" in fashion. :-) But I think you're quite right: to an American eye, so much gold looks quite garish. I'm not sure I'd say it looks trashy, but definitely tacky. Now that I've been here a year, though, I think my tastes have changed. I wear a lot of embroidered clothes that would have looked kind of tacky to me before. And a lot of things that seemed normal before (e.g. grown men wearing shorts) now seem tacky.

It is odd to me not to know what's fashionable -- or at least acceptable. Because our fashion-conscious students are, of course, wearing abayas over their fashionable clothes, I never have an opportunity to SEE what color combinations look good to them -- or what clothes are appropriate in what contexts. I often feel really weird when I wear a new outfit, because I'm not at all sure it will be right. For example, I sometimes wear a purple two-piece outfit to work that I'm not entirely convinced isn't pajamas. How would I know if it was??? And would anyone tell me?